Whole-process design and experimental validation of landing gear lower drag stay with global/local linked driven optimization strategy

Landing gear lower drag stay is a key component which connects fuselage and landing gear and directly effects the safety and performance of aircraft takeoff and landing. To effectively design the lower drag stay and reduce the weight of landing gear, Global/local Linked Driven Optimization Strategy (GLDOS) was developed to conduct the overall process design of lower drag stay in respect of optimization thought. The whole-process optimization involves two stages of structural conceptual design and detailed design. In the structural conceptual design, the landing gear lower drag stay was globally topologically optimized by adopting multiple starting points algorithm. In the detailed design, the local size and shape of landing gear lower drag stay were globally optimized by the gradient optimization strategy. The GLDOS method adopts different optimization strategies for different optimization stages to acquire the optimum design effect. Through the experimental validation, the weight of the optimized lower dray stay with the developed GLDOS is reduced by 16.79% while keeping enough strength and stiffness, which satisfies the requirements of engineering design under the typical loading conditions. The proposed GLDOS is validated to be accurate and efficient in optimization scheme and design cycles. The efforts of this paper provide a whole-process optimization approach regarding different optimization technologies in different design phases, which is significant in reducing structural weight and enhance design precision for complex structures in aircrafts.